Passage 3
Developing a peaceful, understanding, and supportive relationship between parents and children is not an easy task. Failures can and do occur at any age level, and at times the results are the abuse, neglect, and even death of children.
Child abuse has become a major topic in child development and an issue of much national concern. In the span of four legislative years, 1963-1967, all fifty states enacted laws calling for the reporting of injuries inflicted on children. By 1973, the United States Congress passed the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (Public Law 93-247). This law not only reflected the mood of concerned citizens, but also did much to clear up the confusion and disagreement over what is child abuse.
The question “What causes child abuse?” has prompted much debate. The single most persistent myth which had plagued efforts to understand causes is the notion that parents who abuse children are mentally disturbed or ill. Although there is specific psychiatric diagnosis which comprises the behavior and personalities of abuser, they seem to share a common style of child rearing. Those parents demand high levels of child performance and they often use severe physical punishment to ensure the child’s proper behavior. Abusive parents themselves were raised in similar family situations and their own childhood experience has a lasting influence on their behaviors of adults.
Current research has suggested, however, that the “abuser is sick” hypothesis is too limited. A broader social, psychological approach recognizes that some personal problems are implicit but that psychological factors arise out of a social context. Social factors include unemployment, social isolation, and unwanted pregnancy. Moreover, finding that abuse occurs more frequently in larger families and families with low income, poor education, and low occupational status suggests that many such parents cannot withstand the twenty-four-a-day responsibility to raise and care for their children. These problems aggravate the situation, especially when combined with the general approval in our culture of violence.
This selection suggests that child abuse is ________.
文章第一段最后一句提到“This law not only reflected the mood of concerned citizens, but also did much to clear up the confusion and disagreement over what is child abuse.”。由此可知，法律已经明确了什么是虐待孩子。故选D。
We can know from the second paragraph that the law passed in 1973 ________.
文章第一段最后一句提到“This law not only reflected the mood of concerned citizens, but also did much to clear up the confusion and disagreement over what is child abuse.”。由此可知，1973年颁布的法律不仅反映了人们在虐待孩子问题上的担忧，还明确地消除了人们在理解什么是虐待孩子上的疑惑与分歧。
The person who is least likely to be a child-abusing parent is the one who ________.
文章第三段第二句提到“parents who abuse children are mentally disturbed or ill”， 由此可知，心理上不正常的父母通常容易虐待孩子。文章第三段最后一句提到“Abusive parents themselves were raised in similar family situations and their own childhood experience has a lasting influence on their behaviors of adults.”。虐待孩子的父母通常自己也有被虐待的经历。文章最后一段第三句又提到“Social factors include unemployment, social isolation, and unwanted pregnancy.”。很多社会因素也可能会导致父母虐待孩子，如失业、社会隔绝以及非自愿的怀孕等。故选B。
Which one of the following is most probably a cause of child abuse?
文章最后一段倒数第二句提到“abuse occurs more frequently in larger families and families with low income, poor education, and low occupational status”。虐待孩子的现象经常发生于低收入、接受教育程度低以及工作阶级低的大家庭。故选B。
Which of the following statements is the author most likely to agree with?
文章最后一段最后一句提到“These problems aggravate the situation, especially when combined with the general approval in our culture of violence.”。在公众对暴力文化的默许下，虐待儿童的现象会更严重。也就是说，有时人们在电视上看到暴力镜头时可能会让将其实施于自己的孩子身上。故选A。